Joe Meischeid, going strong at 90 in Northampton County Court

Joe Meischeid is a security officer for divorce, custody hearings.

Joe Meischeid, 90, of Palmer Township is a security officer at the Northampton… (MONICA CABRERA, THE MORNING…)

March 06, 2012|Daniel Patrick Sheehan | In The Burbs

I went looking for Joe Meischeid the other day because the Palmer Township man just turned 90 and is still working at the Northampton County Courthouse as a security officer.

I'm no ageist — I once met a man of 83 who won a weightlifting contest, and I've interviewed a couple of octogenarian marathoners over the years — but a 90-year-old security guard? This I wanted to see.

A courthouse guard directed me to the mediation room, the place where divorcing couples try to reach agreement in matters of custody and property division.

"If he's not in there, come back, and I'll chase him down," the guard said. I thought I was going to have to take him up on that offer, because the only official-looking man in the remediation room was a gent of perhaps 70.

But this turned out to be Joe Meischeid after all. He's that sort of 90.

"You might call it by accident," he said when I asked how he came to work at the courthouse after a long career as an insurance salesman. "My brother was working here at the time and the sheriff said, 'Do you think Joe would want to work here?' So I came down and talked with Kenny Stocker."

That was in August of 1990. Kenny Stocker was the sheriff. He hired Joe, probably figuring he'd be a good employee because Joe's brother, Richard, was a good one. And it worked out. The Meischeid brothers were courthouse colleagues until Richard retired three years ago — at age 90.

This Meischeid clan knows some kind of secret about longevity. Joe's late sister, Marie, lived to be 90, too. Maybe it was the water in Wilson Borough, where they grew up.

Or maybe it's all in the attitude. Joe, at least, has that sort of natural affability that makes you relax in his company.

That's important, because divorce and custody cases are fraught with high emotion.

"He's just a naturally calm personality," said attorney Ellen Kraft, one of the county's special divorce masters.

Calm, but not impassive. Meischeid, who has been married to his wife Doreen for 62 years and has six children, said the hearings can be terribly sad.

"It's people who no longer love each other," he said. "And the children are usually caught in the middle of it."

The courthouse has expanded around him. The suite of mediation rooms was created during the most recent renovation of the building. Before that, he had to run around the building from one hearing room to another.

"Things were a lot different in those days," he said, talking about his early years. "All the doors were open. Now there's only one way in and out."

Meischeid hasn't given much thought to retirement. His brother was on the job for 28 years, but Joe isn't sure he'll stay on that long.

"It depends on my wife's health and mine," he said.

On Friday, his colleagues surprised him with a cake. And on Sunday, his birthday, his family — 25 members from across the generations — gave him a nice brunch at a restaurant in Phillipsburg.

"I've been overwhelmed," he said. "I told one of the secretaries, 'If you want to be overwhelmed, just turn 90.'"